What if : The defender
by Qetsiyah'sBadassDaughter
Summary: What if Clary never existed? Nobody knows what happens after you are on the other side but when coming back confused and a half angel.. "Lexi showed them the rune inked mark on her toned small stomach and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at their shocked looks as well as the blonde staring at her as if she was the meaning of his existence."
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, here is an idea.. What if Clary never existed? Nobody knows what happens after you are on the other side but when coming back confused and a half angel.. "Lexi showed them the rune inked mark on her toned small stomach and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at their shocked looks as well as the blonde staring at her as if she was the meaning of his existence."**

**M rated - supernatural, romance, hurt&comfort and sexy times in later chapters. *wink, wink. nudge, nudge***

**Jace (obnoxious but sexy) and Lexi (sexy and feisty) pairing. ;)**

**Bree and ... I don't have a pairing for her. Any ideas?**

**First 'Mortal Instruments' fanfiction so please be kind.. I can only hope it is good and will grab your attention.. :) Here is to crossing my fingers.**

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_I sung of Chaos and eternal Night,_

_Taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down_

_The dark descent, and up to reascend…_

_-John Milton, Paradise Lost_

Lexi sighed to herself, making her best friend who stood beside her look at her cautiously, her dark eyes cautiously taking in her stance as of she were a rapid vampire that was about to kill everyone within a fifteen mile radius. Lexi looked down at herself, her body was covered in mostly black - her leather pants matched the jacket she was wearing that was over a dark silver foam fitting top, black, tall boots with a concealed platform, crisscrossing straps and silver buckle accents on an over-the-knee silhouette were on her feet. An old rune inked on her stomach and upper right forearm were concealed, and only her witchy friend that stood next to her knew.

It was strange as much as everything about her now, and even more so that the woman beside her had to do a spell to actually see her. They came up empty for how she was alive after almost four hundred years of not being human, as her heart beat confirmed it to be true, and yet not be able to be seen by other humans.

In her grimoire, her friend found nothing about how she became like this. _Nada._ Werewolves, vampires and witches were covered to the littlest detail but, Lexi thought with a frown, what if there were other magical creatures that weren't well known.. and what if she was one? She wasn't a ghost anymore that was for sure, she could feel herself being touched and yet..

Lexi shook her head and turned to her cinnamon eyes to her friend's worried gaze, "Really Bree, I am as fine as is expected."

She was grateful when the woman beside her nodded but with her eyes looking unsure, and Lexi turned away, not wanting to talk about the thoughts what was haunting her mind. She wondered what Stefan was up to, if he was better then when she last saw him.

Lexi pulled herself from being bent over talking to Stefan, who had more holes in him than swiss cheese. when she felt a slight pull in her navel. Tears began to swell in her eyes as she looked at Stefan then to Elena. She failed. "He is still in there Elena.. You just have to break through."

"It's okay, Lexi." Elena said softly to her. Looking at the amazing, beautiful woman that clearly had a breaking past yet she dedicated her life to help another. If Elena was ever a vampire, which she hoped she would never be, she wanted to be like Lexi. Lexi showed that even though you are a vampire - that doesn't make you a monster. You do all of that on your own. "I know what to do now .." She looked at the beautiful girl in sorrow and did a very hard thing to do since she first really found out about the real her, unclouded by jealousy - Elena set her free.

She wondered if Elena got through to him.. if he was happy.. Lexi shook her head and turned to look at the front of the line that they were standing in of the New York club. Lexi was glad to here that even though she was pissed with Damon for killing her, that Bree didn't take matters in her own hands. It was so unlike her really, and it made her thank the heavens above that her witchy friend was alive. Lexi knew she would be lost if she turned up in Bree's bar only to find out that she was killed, as soon as Bree did a spell to see what others couldn't see, they both had a tearful reunion and got the hell out of dodge, going to a Bon Jovi concert in New York like Lexi planned from the beginning and drowning herself in alcohol.

Ever since she came back Lexi felt a little better, a little more free then she had ever felt but that didn't mean she didn't worry.. didn't hurt or feel pain. She felt drawn to something here and even though she knew it would change everything she had ever known, she didn't know what if it was for better or for worse..

"You've got to be kidding me," the bouncer said from up ahead, folding his arms across his massive chest. He stared down at the boy in the red zip-up jacket and shook his shaved head. "You can't bring that thing in here."

The fifty or so teenagers in line outside the Pandemonium Club leaned forward to eavesdrop, making Lexi and Bree share an amused look. It was a long wait to get into the all-ages club, especially on a Sunday, and not much generally happened in line. The bouncers were fierce and would come down instantly on anyone who looked like they were going to start trouble, the mere thought making Lexi snort. She still had her inhuman strength, her illusion power and her features still not having the human flaws. She was like a vampire again but she liked it better this way - vervain, wood, and sunlight couldn't ham her. She could walk in the sun without getting burned! She had to restrain herself from squealing in joy.

"Aw, come on." The kid hoisted the thing up over his head. It looked like a wooden beam, pointed at one end. "It's part of my costume."

The bouncer raised an eyebrow, clearing amused yet annoyed, "Which is what?"

The boy grinned almost feral.. He was normal-enough-looking, Lexi thought, for Pandemonium. Hmm.. whatever float his boat and squeaked her ducky.

He had electric blue dyed hair that stuck up around his head like the tendrils of a startled octopus, but no elaborate facial tattoos or big metal bars through his ears or lips. "I'm a vampire hunter." He pushed down on the wooden thing, making Bree look startled at Lexi and the blonde could practically see her friend's mind running a mile a minute. It bent as easily as a blade of grass bending sideways. "It's fake. Foam rubber. See?"

The boy's wide eyes were way too bright a green, Lexi noticed: the color of antifreeze or spring grass.. and she, like the other humans around her would have thought they were colored contact lenses, if years of being a vampire didn't improve her eyes eyesight much more then any human could. The bouncer shrugged though, abruptly bored. "Whatever. Go on in."

The boy slid past him, quick as an slippery snake. Lexi would have really liked the lilt to his shoulders, the way he tossed his hair as he went, if there was something about him that didn't sit well with her.

"You thought he was cute," Bree's voice sounded amused at her friend's attention span that a rodent when it came to hot guys, you would seriously think that Lexi was succubus of some sort. Hmm, Bree thought hard as she looked at her friend, Lexi did ask her if some other creatures were possible.. She wasn't a vampire any more, a thing that Bree was grateful for, but.. She shook her head and looked at her honey blonde haired friend with playfulness and not giving away her thoughts, "Didn't you?"

"I won't deny it-" She was cut of by Bree laughing softly and shaking her head, "But there is something about him.. something that just doesn't sit well with me.."

The smile was gone by the time she finished, and by the look on the witch's face she understood completely. Lexi shook her head to clear her thoughts, and they finally got in the club it was full of dry-ice smoke. Colored lights played over the dance floor, turning it into a multicolored fairyland of blues and acid greens, hot pinks and golds. On her way to the bar with Bree, Lexi's eyes narrowed at the boy in the red jacket stroked the long razor-sharp blade in his hands, an idle smile playing over his lips. She promised she would keep an eye on him, something about him and in his aura, just didn't sit well with her.

Drinking some alcohol, Lexi turned to the guy who had his hand tight on the blade he carried, and he had begun to step out onto the dance floor when a girl broke away from the mass of dancers and began walking toward him. He stared at her in a way that Lexi wanted to kick his ass, his gaze was of a predator. Thegirl was beautiful with long hair nearly the precise color of black ink, charcoaled eyes and dressed in floor-ngth white gown, the kind women used to wear when this world was younger. Lace sleeves belled out around her slim arms and around her neck was a thick silver chain, on which hung a dark red pendant the size of a baby's fist.

Lexi wanted to go over and warn the girl, warn her to go home or at least beware of the man and she would have if Bree's hand wasn't keeping her in her seat with a sharp look, "There is something up with that young lady, I think she could take care of herself Lexi."

Biting her lip, she opened her moth to protest when Bree yanked her to the dance floor, "I just got you back, Lex, I don't want to loose you again.."

Giving the human next to her a smile, they both started dancing, laughing softly at the people around them that were trying to pass for it- a lot of swaying back and forth with occasional lunges toward the floor as if one of them had dropped a contact lens-in a space between a group of teenage boys in metallic corsets, and a young Asian couple who were making out passionately, their colored hair extensions tangled together like vines. A boy with a lip piercing and a teddy bear backpack was handing out free tablets of herbal ecstasy, his parachute pants flapping in the breeze from the wind machine.

Lexi wasn't paying much attention to the drunk teenagers around her but her eyes were looking for the blue-haired boy who'd talked his way into the club. He was prowling through the crowd as if he were looking for something, it reminded her of a vampire picking out it's new meal, not everyone had the same idea with the blood bags as she did.

When she saw him, Lexi slowed her dancing and stared. She could just make out that the shapes were boys, tall and wearing black clothes. She couldn't have said how she knew that they were following the other boy, but she did. She could see it in the way they paced him, their careful watchfulness, the slinking grace of their movements. Bree danced with her, now watching her as if she was about to sprout rabbit ears that the people around her that were eyeing her lustfully would have loved.

A small flower of apprehension began to open inside her chest as Lexi saw the girl had reached the wall, and was opening a door marked no admittance. She beckoned the blue-haired boy after her, and they slipped through the door. It wasn't anything Lexi hadn't seen before, a couple sneaking off to the dark corners of the club to make out but that made it even weirder that they were being followed.

She raised herself up on tiptoe, trying to see over the crowd. The two guys had stopped at the door and seemed to be conferring with each other, the loud noises making it impossible for Lexi to hear what they were saying. One of them was blond, the other dark-haired. The blond one reached into his jacket and drew out something long and sharp that flashed under the strobing lights.

_A knife._

"Bree!" Lexi shouted, and seized her arm. "Do you see those guys?" She pointed wildly ignoring Bree's confused look, almost hitting a curvy black girl who was dancing nearby, who shot her an evil look. "Sorry!" She turned back to Bree. "Do you see those two guys over there? By that door?"

Bree squinted, then shrugged. "I don't see anything.. maybe more ghosts or whatever you came back as?"

Lexi sighed and tried to explain to her friend, "There are two of them. They were following the guy with the blue hair-"

"The one you thought was cute?" Bree smirked at her but her eyes held confusion.

"Yes, but that's not the point." Lexi rolled her eyes, "The blond one pulled out a knife."

"Are you sure?" Bree stared harder, shaking her head. "I still don't see anyone."

"I'm sure."

Suddenly all business, Bree squared her shoulders. "It'll be no point to get one of the security guards, since it's a supernatural thing.. and they can't be seen anyway.."

Lexi turned just in time to see the blond boy slip through the no admittance door, his friend right on his heels and looked at Bree, if they waited something terrible might happen. Lexi nodded and led Bree as they both started to wriggle through the crowd.

Lexi heard Bree's heels walking fast as she pushed the door to the storage room open, and stepped inside, for a moment she thought it was deserted. The only windows were high up and barred; faint street noise came through them, the sound of honking cars and squealing brakes. The room smelled like old paint, and a heavy layer of dust covered the floor, marked by smeared shoe prints. But then she heard teeth grinding, and a voice hiss something that spun around her head as Lexi tried to figure out what it was, "_Shadow Hunter_."

A voice spoke out smug, as if he was Tom that finally got a hold of Jerry, "_Got you_."

It was cold in the room, despite the August heat outside and Lexi grabbed Bree's arm as she stepped forward tangling her feet in electrical wires. Bree bent down to free her sneaker from the cables and Lexi stepped in front of her as she heard voices. A girl's laugh, a boy answering sharply told her they weren't friendly but as she saw them, she couldn't help but pause.

Bree mumbled a spell under her breath as she saw her friend pause and it was as if they had sprung into existence between one blink of her eyes and the next. There was the girl in her long white dress, her black hair hanging down her back like damp seaweed. The two boys were with her-the tall one with black hair like Bree's, and the smaller, fair one, whose hair gleamed like brass in the dim light coming through the windows high above. The fair boy was standing with his hands in his pockets, facing the punk kid, who was tied to a pillar with what looked like piano wire, his hands stretched behind him, his legs bound at the ankles, and his face was pulled tight with pain and fear.

Heart hammering in her chest, Lexi motioned from Bree to keep quiet as she ducked behind the nearest concrete pillar and peered around it, watchin as the fair-haired boy paced back and forth, his arms now crossed over his chest. "So," he said. "You still haven't told me if there are any other of your kind with you."

_Your kind?_

_So there is other creatures were out there.. how interesting.._

"I don't know what you're talking about." The blue-haired boy's tone was pained but surly.

"He means other demons," said the dark-haired boy, speaking for the first time. "You do know what a demon is, don't you?"

The boy tied to the pillar turned his face away, his mouth working.

"Demons," drawled the blond boy, tracing the word on the air with his finger. "Religiously defined as hell's denizens, the servants of Satan, but understood here, for the purposes of the Clave, to be any malevolent spirit whose origin is outside our own home dimension-"

"That's enough, Jace," said the girl.

"Isabelle's right," agreed the taller boy. "Nobody here needs a lesson in semantics - or - demonology."

Jace raised his head and smiled. There was something fierce about the gesture, something that reminded Lexi of documentaries she'd watched about lions on the Discovery Channel, the way the big cats would raise their heads and sniff the air for prey. Something so predatory and inhuman about him that - "Isabelle and Alec think I talk too much," he said, confidingly. "Do you think I talk too much?"

The blue-haired boy didn't reply. His mouth was still working. "I could give you information," he said. "I know where Valentine is."

_Valentine?_

_Somehow I seriously don't think they are talking about the holiday.._

Jace glanced back at Alec, who shrugged. "Valentine's in the ground." Jace said. "The thing's just toying with us."

Isabelle tossed her hair. "Kill it, Jace," she said. "It's not going to tell us anything."

Jace raised his hand, and Bree and Lexi saw dim light spark off the knife he was holding. It was oddly translucent, the blade clear as crystal, sharp as a shard of glass, the hilt set with red stones.

The bound boy gasped. "_Valentine is back!_" he protested, dragging at the bonds that held his hands behind his back. "All the Infernal Worlds know it - I know it - I can tell you where he is-"

Rage flared suddenly in Jace's icy eyes. "By the Angel, every time we capture one of you bastards, you claim you know where Valentine is. Well, we know where he is too. He's in hell. And you-" Jace turned the knife in his grasp, the edge sparking like a line of fire. "You can join him there."

Lexi could take no more, she stepped out from behind the pillar, and Bree moved with her. "Stop!" Lexi cried. "You can't do this."

Jace whirled, so startled that the knife flew from his hand and clattered against the concrete floor. Isabelle and Alec turned along with him, wearing identical expressions of astonishment. The blue-haired boy hung in his bonds, stunned and gaping.

It was Alec who spoke first. "What's this?" he demanded, looking from the two new girls to his companions, as if they might know what they were doing there.

"Their girls," Jace said, recovering his composure. "Surely you've seen girls before, Alec. Your sister Isabelle is one."

"Lexi..?" Bree spoke out, only to have this Alec glare at her making Lexi block his sight of her friend and threw him a glare of her own.

He took a step closer to them both, squinting as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing as he looked at Lexi, "A mundie girl," he said, half to himself. "And she can see us."

"Mundie? Dude, you really need to update you insult book. Of course I can see you," Lexi tried to refrain from rolling her eyes. "I'm not blind, you know. Besides those tattoos of yours look familiar.."

She pulled up her dark gray foam fitted shirt and showed them the rune inked mark on her toned small stomach and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at their shocked looks as well as the blonde staring at her as if she was the meaning of his existence.

"_Your_-" Isabelle started but paused, looking at her as if she never seen anything like her.

"I am _what_ exactly?" Lexi looked at the three 'Shadow Hunters', "Because as far as I know I - _er_- _'woke up'_ like this.." Sharing a look with Bree, she missed the wide eyed looks from the hunters, before Lexi shook her head and continued, "Anyways I know that he is a creeper, and something about his aura just isn't right, but there really isn't a reason to kill him.. right?"

"Yes.. there is actually." said Jace, bending to pick up his knife. "You just don't know it yet." He straightened up. "You'd better get out of here, if you know what's good for you."

"I'm not going anywhere." Bree stated with frostiness. "If we do, you'll kill him." She pointed at the boy with the blue hair.

"That's true," admitted Jace, twirling the knife between his fingers. "What do you care if I kill him or not?"

Lexi raised an eye brow at him and scoffed, "You can't just go around killing people.. or... is he not an actual person..?" Her eyebrow raised even higher when she saw Jace smirk proudly at his friends, and as drawn as she was to him, she couldn't help but think of Stefan. "But no matter _what_ this guy is, what had he done? What had he done to you or other people? My best friend is a vampire, he didn't have his sire to teach him when he turned and before he knew what he was doing, he was ripping body parts off to get closer to the blood. I helped him, saving thousands of his would be victims mind you. All because he wasn't in control and arrogant, doesn't mean I ever gave up on him. So, I repeat, what on earth has he done to you?"

Silence engulfed the room, and Jace nodded slowly. "You're right. You can't go around killing people." He pointed at the boy with blue hair, whose eyes were slitted, and Lexi wondered if he'd fainted. "That's not a person, kind of like a vampire. It may look like a person and talk like a person and maybe even bleed like a person, but it's a monster."

_You were once a vampire, you are a monster. You don't even know what your are anymore._

Bree stepped closer to her, grabbing her hand and glared at the blonde male in front of her, and went to say something but was cut off by the blue-haired boy, with a high, yowling cry, tore free of the restraints binding him to the pillar, and flung himself on Jace. Lexi glared at the boy, her eyes seeming to be flicking and twitching all on their own, making him panic and see things that weren't there, "Shut it, little boy, the adults are talking."

"You.. illusions.. how..?!" Alec seemed to barely remember to speak, making Lexi raise her eyebrows in amusement, but the boy somehow managed to get out of it because of her losing concentration. The boy jumped at Jace and they fell to the ground and rolled together, the blue-haired boy tearing at Jace with hands that glittered as if tipped with metal. Bree backed up, wanting to run, but her feet caught on a loop of wiring and she went down, if Lexi didn't catch her she no doubt would have knocking the breath out of her chest. They could hear Isabelle shrieking and turning, both women saw the blue-haired boy sitting on Jace's chest with blood gleaming at the tips of his razor like claws.

Isabelle and Alec were running toward them, Isabelle brandishing a whip in her hand. The blue-haired boy slashed at Jace with claws extended, who threw an arm up to protect himself, and the claws raked it, splattering blood. The blue-haired boy lunged again and Isabelle's whip came down across his back. He shrieked and fell to the side.

Swift as a flick of Isabelle's whip, Jace rolled over. There was a blade gleaming in his hand. He sank the knife into the blue-haired boy's chest. Blackish liquid exploded around the hilt. The boy arched off the floor, gurgling and twisting. With a grimace Jace stood up. His black shirt was blacker now in some places, wet with blood. He looked down at the twitching form at his feet, reached down, and yanked out the knife. The hilt was slick with black fluid.

The blue-haired boy's eyes flickered open. His eyes, fixed on Jace, seemed to burn. Between his teeth, he hissed, "So be it. The Forsaken will take you all. " Jace seemed to snarl. The boy's eyes rolled back. His body began to jerk and twitch as he crumpled, folding in on himself, growing smaller and smaller until he vanished entirely.

Bree scrambled to her feet, kicking free of the electrical wiring. She began to back away, none of them was paying attention to her. Alec had reached Jace and was holding his arm, pulling at the sleeve, probably trying to get a good look at the wound. Bree turned to run and found her way blocked by Isabelle, whip in hand, the gold length of it was stained with dark fluid. She flicked it toward Bree, and the end wrapped itself around her wrist and jerked tight making her gasp with pain and surprise before she glared at the girl, giving her a full on aneurism making the girl drop to her knees.

Lexi appeared out of no where, hugging her and looking at Bree's arm on anger. "Stop, Bree." She looked at the spot where the boy had disappeared from, and couldn't future out what to say. There wasn't even a smear of blood there-nothing to show that the boy had ever existed.. even with vampires there was blood, and when they died, ash.

"They return to their home dimensions when they die," said Jace. "In case you were wondering."

"Jace," Alec hissed. "Be careful."

Jace drew his arm away and Lexi saw a ghoulish freckling of blood marked his face. He still reminded her of a lion, with his wide-spaced, light-colored eyes, and that tawny gold hair. "They can see us, Alec," he said. "They already knows too much.. and with that symbol of rune.."

"Answers." Lexi kept her voice calm as if she was talking about the weather would be wonderful."

"Maybe we should bring her back with us," Alec said. "I bet Hodge would like to talk to her."

"No way are we bringing her to the Institute," said Isabelle. "She's a mundie. "

"Or is she?" said Jace softly. His quiet tone was worse than Isabelle's snapping or Alec's anger. "Have you had dealings with demons, girl? Walked with warlocks, talked with the Night Children? Have you-"

"Oh come on, Jace!" Isabelle yelled out on anger, "She just said that she was friends with vampires! She practically is proud that she is friends with 'Night Children'."

_You were once a vampire, you are a monster. __You don't even know what your are anymore._

"Excuse you!" Lexi interrupted icily at the girl, "My friends are none of your concern and if you were listening closely you would understand that I helped them to be better. Also my name is not 'girl'. I have no idea what you're talking about about demons but some of my friends are witches if that was what you meant and I will not stand for you being rude. First my vampire friends are monsters and then my witch friends are being put under the microscope as well?" Lexi scoffed in anger as she grabbed Bree's hand, saying one thing in sarcasm before heading out into the rock music and going home. "Yeah, it was_ so_ nice to meet you."

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**Please review, I am really anxious as to learn what you think..**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you for all those who review, favorited, and followed. Hope you like it.**

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Lexi tossed back and forth on her bed, the rune on her stomach tingled irritating and warm, her mind buzzing a mile a minute. She hated that she was drawn to someone so obnoxious in his ways, disregarding the light side of creatures that were like Bree and what she was once a short time ago. He didn't care that she made them better, that there was gray inbetween black and white. Her anger showed again as she remembered the hopeless look on Bree's face, and she ripped the blacks off of her body. She stood in front of the full length mirror in nothing but an Call of Duty long t-shirt over her lacy black underwear, sighing she pulled up her shirt and stared at the tattoo on her lower stomach in confusion. It was half of one symbol and half of another, the black ink of it made her normal olive skin look pale if that was even possible.

What was she now? At least as a vampire she learned to survive and didn't have an identity crisis! She learned to move on from the past and live in the present, hiding her failed dreams of a family and live her life (undead as it was) to the fullest. Looking sideways, she heard a heart beat and couldn't contain a gasp when she saw the deep lustful blue eyes that were surrounded by darkness, before she smirked and put her shirt down, "You know, stalking peeping Toms don't get anywhere with me. Maybe if you actually listened to me about some creatures being gray and not just black and white I may have invited you to talk which may or may not have led to my bed.."

"Really?" The blonde teenager of her dreams stepped out of the shadows with a naughty smirk, and as she started walking to the balcony doors he eyed her long legs and her big chest that was braless as he continued, "Maybe we should get right on that then."

"You haven't changed your mind on any supernatural creatures, have you? " She knew by the look on his face that he didn't, so she grabbed the handles of her balcony doors, pausing a few inches away from him, "Then here is something for you to ponder as you stalk me and have naughty dreams about me? I used to be one of them."

The sound of the glass doors slamming together echoed through the night and Lexi turned with a satisfied smirk before it went away as she leaned against the white curtains that covered the glass doors she just slammed. What was it about him that made her swoon but want to kick his ass? Would he even speak to her after that realization..

And why did she even care?

Lexi sighed, yeah she wasn't going to get some sleep tonight.

It was only about to reach day break when the dark prince sat astride his black steed, his sable cape flowing behind him. A golden circlet bound his blond locks, his handsome face was cold with the rage of battle, and—

"And his arm looked like an eggplant," Lexi muttered to herself in exasperation as she took in the picture before her then grabbing her eraser for what seemed like the millionth time. He seemed so cold, so obnoxiously serious, and yet so damn perfect. She had the urge to help him, and something told her it wasn't just some heroine complex that she had.

She sighed and flipped the page of the art pad in her hands, pulling it a little closer to her face and traced the lines of the two inked tattoos that was the exact same ones on her body. The one on her upper arm was smaller - about two inches - that kind of looked like Christ's body when he died on the cross with a circle around it. The head, outward arms, chest, and what looked like a arrow pointed downward for legs. Around the circle - she looked up online - were symbols of a unfilled in circle that was light, a Sybil that looked like a whirl pool that was motion or change, three dots that formed a triangle without the lines for her power of illusions, an hourglass sideways for her undead past, a right side up one for fertility (Did that mean... No, she won't get her hopes up!) and the last one was easy to find. Angelic power. The circle to be an ancient and universal symbol of unity, wholeness, infinity, the goddess, female power, and the sun.

She looked up the Jesus cross like symbol and came acrossed the same body like for 'defender' which didn't really surprise her. The name 'Alexia' literally meant 'defender of man' but did that make her an actual angel? She was raised in a Christian family when she was human but wasn't this all talking it a little too far? If only the rune on her lower hip was that simple to find out, because in the middle of an 'angelic power' symbol an eye was in the center, staring back at her.

She huffed and threw her art book on her black stain sheets of her bed and glared at the clock that read it would be five minutes to seven, throwing on a pair of cheetah printed shorts she left her room in search of coffee, trying and failing to shake her thoughts away.

"Why are you up so early, girly?" Lexi looked blankly at Bree's cheeriness in the morning as the girl in question giggled at her small rhyme.

"Whoever said I feel asleep?" Lexi avoided Bree's solemn look as she took a huge gulp of coffee.

"Nightmares?"

Lexi groaned, if it was only that simple.."Researched my runes." She said as she explained everything she found out, leaving out the part about she couldn't sleep because of a certain blonde boy, but nevertheless it made her friend look at her in surprised awe. She groaned again when Bree went on about some poetry at Java Jones tonight, the coffee shop around the corner from their apartment that sometimes had live music at night. She knew Bree was acting excited about it because Lexi liked it and she told her as such but Bree simply brushed it off, saying that she actually wanted to go.

Shocker there.

Lexi drank the rest of her coffee and grabbed a cereal bar before running upstairs to take a shower and get dressed, even if the poetry sucked she would still be out of the house and with any luck get thoughts wouldn't plague her.

With Lexi in dark faded jeans, a gray tank top and black boots with the almost the same thing but in a black tank top - both girls made their way into 'Java Jones' a young human teen with black hair with pink tips that had the name of Eric was already onstage, swaying back and forth in front of the microphone with his eyes squinched shut, and behind him a boy with brown hair looked stoned, beating irregularly on a djembe. The scent of coffee and cigarettes were heavy in the air.

How could they let a kid that's high play? That was what Lexi would have loved to know, along with why didn't he share. She shook her head with a smile at Bree before grabbing a back concerner unoccupied love seat and ordering coffee before saying, "We could make a run for it now, you know?"

Bree shook her head at the vampire turned angel, "No way, I want to see if this is any good-"

Lexi shook her head in amusement, "I highly doubt it and I guess you could say I like poetry, but the person who its going to talk looks like he its going to fall over he looks so drunk and the others look like their high. It may not be good poetry, but it will possibly be entertaining."

They both laughed softly to each other, and Bree was about to say something but was interrupted by a burst of feedback. Both women winced and covered their ears as Eric, onstage, wrestled with his microphone.

"Sorry about that, guys!" he yelled. "Alright. I'm Eric, and this is my homeboy Matt on the drums. My first poem is called 'Untitled.'

"Wow, well isn't he just so creative," Lexi remarked softly, making Bree cover her laugh in her hand.

Eric screwed up his face as if in pain, and wailed into the mike. "Come, my faux juggernaut, my nefarious loins! Slatherevery protuberance with arid zeal!"

"Eh?" Lexi raised an eyebrow as her mouth dropped, her facial expression making it harder for Bree to not burst of laughing.

"Turgid is my torment!" Eric wailed. "Agony swells within!"

"You bet it does," Bree said, trying and failing to act normal as Lexi looked at her like she had crossed over to the dark side all for those amazing sugar cookies that they tempted her with.

Lexi was about to say something but she heard someone cough loudly behind her. It was a derisive sort of cough, the kind of noise someone might make who was trying not to laugh out loud. She looked behind Bree and froze, making the witch look back at her with deviously, playful eyes as she saw who grabbed Lexi's attention.

Sitting on a faded green sofa a few feet away from her was Jace (why he was following her after learning that she used to be a thing he hated, that she had friends in the creatures he hated, was a complete mystery to her?) he was wearing the same dark clothes he'd had on the night before in the club. His arms were bare and covered with faint white lines like old scars. His wrists bore wide metal cuffs; she could see the bone handle of a knife protruding from the left one. He was looking right at her, the side of his narrow mouth quirked in amusement and years of learning to be in tune with your surroundings had her swearing that he hadn't been sitting there five minutes ago.

She stared at Jace as she thought it, and he raised his left hand to wave at her with a ring glittered on a slim finger. He got to his feet and began walking, unhurriedly, toward the door, making Lexi's lips parted in surprise. He was leaving, just like that. Maybe he didn't want anything to do with her.. but then why such an act? Why not just forget about her?

She looked at Bree, who was smiling at her, "Go ahead, you need to learn more about who you are now." She stood up and hugged her friend. "I will meet you back at the house." Bree couldn't help but smile as Lexi nodded as she sprang off the couch, almost forgetting to set her coffee cup down before she raced toward the door, leaving her witch friend to simply staring after her.

Yeah, Lexi liked him alright.

Lexi burst through the doors, terrified that Jace would have vanished into the alley shadows like a ghost but he was there, slouched against the wall. He had just taken something out of his pocket and was punching buttons on it when he looked up in surprise as the door of the coffee shop fell shut behind her.

In the rapidly falling twilight, his hair looked coppery gold. "Your friend's poetry is terrible," he said, and Lexi blinked at him confused.

"His poetry was terrible. It sounds like he ate a dictionary and started vomiting up words at random. "

"That's actually a very acute description," proclaimed Lexi with a smirk, "But I am not his friend, I don't even know the guy. Awe, are you jeal-ous?" She purred mockingly the last word, making him glare slightly at her, "I am surprised that you even want to seek me out to talk to me, after finding out that I was a creature you seem to hate and have many friends of those -"

"You are not one anymore though I am curious as to what you meant by 'woke up' like that, and how you aren't one of those creatures anymore.." He went on when she didn't give anything away, "I thought about your little story of your vampire friend and I never thought that there was a gray middle with the Downworlders.. and besides that, the offer that you gave last night was way to tempting to let it go like that.

"Downworlders?" Lexi raised an eyebrow at the term, after winking at him with a smirk.

"The Night magical folk of this dimension."

"You do realize that witches or male witches - warlocks - are not born to be evil?" Lexi rolled her eyes at his unsure look, "Their magic comes from the earth, it is pure until expression is involved." She continued on as she saw his blank expression, "Expression is a form of extremely dark and powerful sorcery that draws on malicious powers that are so evil it would supposedly demolish the world if it were ever called into existence. The history of expression remains unknown and it is worse than black magic, many witches don't even call it magic. It is not something natural, it is something taught. "

"When you aid last night that you were one of those supernatural creatures, where you a witch?"

"No, I actually was a blood bag drinking, Bon Jovi fangirling, partying immortal." She struggled not to smile at his face after she said that. "I know the obvious but I have never come acrossed an angel, demons - I mean what's next zombies?"

"Of course their are, angels and demons can only be seen by well - angels and demons. That's why I am surprised your friend could see us." Jace tailed off again, and Lexi stood in silence, he wasn't about to get a story from her when he was keeping secrets. "Although you mostly find zombies farther south, where the voudun priests are."

"What about mummies? Do they only hang around Egypt?" Lexi asked sarcastically.

"Don't be ridiculous." Jace murmured in disbelief, "No one believes in mummies."

"They don't?" She teased back.

"Of course not," Jace looking at her, before rolling his eyes at her. "Look, Hodge will explain all this to you when you see him."

Lexi crossed her arms over her chest. "Not to be rude, but what if I don't want to see him? If this guy will just judge me on the friends I keep then I am not sure if I want to."

"That's your problem. You can come either willingly or unwillingly."

Lexi smirked to herself, tilting her head to the left slightly. "Are you actually threatening to kidnap me?"

"If you want to look at it that way?" Jace said emotionlessly "yes."

Lexi opened her mouth to tease him about how if he showed her his body she would gladly let him, but was interrupted by a strident buzzing noise of her phone ringing. "Go ahead and answer that if you like," Jace said generously.

The phone stopped ringing, then started up again, loud and insistent. Lexi frowned - Bree must really be freaking out. She half-turned away from Jace and began digging in her bag. By the time she unearthed the phone, it was on its third set of rings. She raised it to her ear. "Bree?"

"Oh, Lexi. Oh, thank God." A sharp prickle of alarm ran up Lexi's spine and she started to run to her house they were staying at, her witchy friend sounded panicked which didn't happen often. "Listen to me-"

"What's happening?!" A noise in the background interrupted her: the sound of something falling, shattering, something heavy striking the floor- "Bree!" Lexi shouted into the phone. "Bree, are you all right?"

"The aneurisms aren't working for long on these things Lexi!" Bree yelled and with terror the blonde realized her friend didn't answer her question, running faster she saw Jace keeping in step with her. In her mind she saw the house, Bree fighting a demon that wouldn't be paralyzed with pain for long, and suddenly her feet weren't touching the ground anymore, her navel seemed to twist and turn until she was right in the spacious back yard.

Lexi's sense that something was wrong only increased when she reached the back door. It was unlocked, hanging slightly open, spilling a wedge-shaped shaft of light onto the landing. With a feeling of increasing panic, she pushed the door open, but stayed quiet hearing Bree's soft whimpers. Inside the apartment the lights were on, all the lamps, everything turned up to full brightness and the glow stabbed into her eyes. She followed Bree's whimpers cautiously into the living room, the windows were open, yards of gauzy white curtains blowing in the breeze like restless ghosts. Only when the wind dropped and the curtains settled did Lexi see that the cushions had been ripped from the sofa and scattered around the room. Some were torn lengthwise, cotton innards spilling onto the floor. The bookshelves had been tipped over, their contents scattered. The piano bench lay on its side, gaping open like a wound, Bree's beloved music books spewing out. In the middle of the floor, behind the large wooden coffee table was Bree.

"Bree.." She said as quietly as possible, not wanting to draw attention to the both of them if whatever attacked her friend was still there. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Bree opened her mouth but nothing came out, she looked like an old porcelian doll that was just a touch away from breaking but something broke through the silence - a noise sounded through the apartment, raising the short hairs along the nape of her neck and making Bree's widen as they turned to her in fright. The noise seemed like something being knocked over-a heavy object striking the floor with a dull thud. The thud was followed by a dragging, slithering noise-and it was coming from an upstairs bedroom.

"Yesss." A hiss made Lexi turn to stand protectively in front of Bree, lips turning in disgust as she caught sight of the thing that was crouched against the floor, a long, scaled creature with a cluster of flat black eyes set dead center in the front of its domed skull. Something like a cross between an alligator and a centipede, it had a thick, flat snout and a barbed tail that whipped menacingly from side to side. Multiple legs bunched underneath it as it readied itself to spring. The hisses that came from it's mouth formed words, "Come here hybrid, Valentine has use for you. Maybe if you are lucky he will keep you alive to be his pet."

Lexi scoffed softly, until her eyes were forced shut and the image of a man around the age of thirty-eight with baby blue eyes, black spiky hair, olive skin tone that was inked by runes and had on a leather jacket. She shook her head and opened her eyes confused, before widening them at the creature who took that as her answer before it sprang at her, she put her hand up to protect herself as Bree screamed out for her friend..A sharp pain was in the hand that was outstretched, a small but bright light shining and as the demon disappeared ink seemed to break away from him.

Light stabbed through her eyelids, blue, white, and red. There was a high wailing noise, rising in pitch like the scream of a terrified child, Lexi gagged and opened her eyes, wondering how she was lying on cold damp grass. The night sky rippled overhead, the pewter gleam of stars washed out by city lights as Jace knelt beside her, the silver cuffs on his wrists throwing off sparks of light as he tore the piece of cloth he was holding into strips. "Don't move, either of you."

The wailing threatened to split her ears in half. Lexi turned her head to the side, disobediently, and was rewarded with a razoring stab of pain that shot up from her hand, but none of that mattered to her for she saw Bree laying beside her, "Bree-"

"Will be fine if I get her to the institute fast enough." He looked at her calmly, "You don't get a chance to decline now."

Jace picked up Bree gently, putting her behind the rose bushes as already a small knot of neighbors had gathered, staring as the car door opened and two blue-uniformed officers emerged.

The police.

Bree tried to sit up, and gagged again, fingers spasming into the damp earth.

"I told you not to move," Jace hissed. "That Ravener demon got you in the back of the neck. It was half-dead so it wasn't much of a sting, but we have to get you to the Institute. Hold still. "

"That demon .." Lexi helped Bree relaxed as rubbed the forehead of the girl that was shuddering uncontrollably. "it talked.."

"You've heard a demon talk before." After he slipped the strip of knotted cloth under Bree's neck and tied it, Jace's hands were gentle as he checked her branded palm, tracing it and making Lexi shiver as if she could feel his fingers on her. Jace noticed this and smirked inwardly. The cloth Bree's neck was smeared with something waxy, and it looked like the gardener's salve her used to keep her paint- and turpentine-abused hands soft.

"The demon in Pandemonium - it looked like a person."

"It was an Eidolon demon. A shape-changer. Raveners look like they look. Not very attractive, but they're too stupid to care. "

Lexi went to say something but Bree's in relief made her think that the pain in the back of her neck had faded. She hauled herself into a sitting position. "The police are here." Her voice came out like a frog's croak. "We should-"

"There's nothing they can do. Somebody probably heard you screaming and reported it. Ten to one those aren't real police officers. Demons have a way of hiding their tracks. " He continued on when Bree went to interrupt him, "There's Ravener poison coursing through your veinsright now. You'll be dead in an hour if you don't come with me." He got to his feet and held out a hand to her. She took it and he pulled her upright. "Come on."

The world tilted and Lexi and Jace held her arms, holding her steady. He smelled of dirt, blood, and metal. "Can you walk?"

"I think so." She glanced through the densely blooming bushes. She could see the police coming up the path. One of them, a slim blond woman, held a flashlight in one hand. As she raised it, Lexi saw the hand was fleshless, a skeleton hand sharpened to bone points at the fingertips.

"Her hand-"

"I told you they might be demons." Jace glanced at the back of the house. "We have to get out of here. Can we go through the alley?"

Lexi shook her head add Bree spoke. "It's bricked up. There's no way-" Her words dissolved into a fit of coughing. She raised her hand to cover her mouth. It came away red, and Lexi winced when Bree whimpered.

He grabbed her wrist, turned it over so the white, vulnerable flesh of her inner arm lay bare under the moonlight. Traceries of blue vein mapped the inside of her skin, carrying poisoned blood to her heart, her brain, Lexi's arms wrapped around Bree as she felt the girl's knees buckle. There was something in Jace's hand, something sharp and silver. She tried to pull her hand back, but his grip was too hard: She felt a stinging kiss against her skin and when she heard Bree let out a hiss hen he let go, she saw an inked black symbol like the ones that covered his skin - just like the ones on her upper forearm, and lower stomach - this one that matched Bree's new tattoo was just below the fold of her wrist. This one looked like a set of overlapping circles.

"What's that supposed to do?" Lexi questioned as she looked at it.

"It'll hide both of you." he said. "Your friend only temporarily." He slid the thing both girls had thought was a knife back into his belt. It was a long, luminous cylinder, as thick around as an index finger and tapering to a point. "My stele." he said.

Lexi nodded, feeling his eyes on her, but her attention was on Bree who swayed back and forth. "Bree!" Lexi caught her, trying to talk with her but her she was skippering fast. "Keep your eyes open!" But by the time she finished those four words, Bree eyes were quite the opposite, they were fully closed.

"Bree!" She turned swiftly to Jace, "Take us to that institute that you were talking about but if we are in any more danger that what you are now, you will find your ass getting kicked, capish?"

Jace slowly and gently put Bree over his shoulder and reached out to hold Lexi's hand, which she allowed as she promptly ignored his victorious, teasing, sexy smirk as she swallowed her questions.

Lexi huffed, stupidly hot arrogant angels, but it didn't matter as long as Bree was safe.

...

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**Please review and let me know what you think? Thank you so much.**


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